Regensburg & Donaustauf, Germany {Deutschland}

Every time we've attempted to visit Regensburg, our journey was thwarted by one thing or another. Well, I finally made it to the city and happily so! 
Bustling streets, quaint buildings, and lots of history in this fast growing, German medieval town.

Oh, and we visited some castle ruins on the way home...!

Regensburg is often talked of in my area. It's a go-to city for people who are wanting to do some serious shopping or need a big city feel without the crowds of Frankfurt or Munich. Personally, I'll stick to Nuremberg for my shopping needs, but Regensburg was a nice change of scenery. 

We started off our adventure by parking one bridge over from the main stone bridge 
(Quiet/cheap outdoor lot near Wöhrdstraße 18, 93059 Regensburg), and strolled towards the old stone bridge along the bank; taking pictures of the buildings across the river.

To my dismay, the dang stone bridge was under restoration (story of my European life), but I still managed to work around it.

St Peter's Cathedral (Regensburg Dom) as seen from across the river.

Once we crossed the river, I followed St. Peter's Cathedrals spires and on the way stumbled across one of my must see sites: Portia Praetoria. 
Though it doesn't seem like a major landmark, it is, and one of the oldest found within the city.
Porta Praetoria is what remains of an old Roman fortified gate to the city. I did mention that the city of Regensburg dates back to medieval times, but it also goes further back! Porta Praetoria was erected around 179 AD, by Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. This is one of the last two standing Roman gates this side of the alps. The other is in Trier, Germany (a must see on my long list).

Random pub photo. I just thought the curtain of leaves looked cool.

Regensburg Turm Museum

Although we were near the Regensburg Dom (cathedral), I wanted to do a bit of wandering. The city was gearing up for this coming weekend's Christmas Market opening, so much was in disarray, BUT the holiday decorations are already in full swing.

We headed to St. Peter's Cathedral (Regensburg Dome Cathedral). It's much like many others I have stepped foot in, but all are beautiful in their own right. I generally visit most cathedrals if the opportunity arises, simply because some are real gems that look plain otherwise. There's not much to write home about this one, however we did visit a smaller cathedral (that you'll read about in a minute) and it was not much on the outside, BUT fabulous on the inside. 

Cathedrals are like boxes of chocolate...

From St. Peter's, we strolled over to Alte Kapelle cathedral. We grabbed lunch from a near by vendor, and I aimlessly snapped pics of the area. 

I just upgraded my Nikon D7000 to a Nikon D750 (my old sensor has seen it's hayday, and the cost to fix it here in Europe is outrageous. I figured it was time to go full frame, anyway). 

I was using any excuse to take a million photos of randoms. This was my new camera's first real outing!

Although I 'forgot' to take a photo of Alte Kapelle's exterior (the above photo is NOT the exterior to the church below), trust me when I say there's not much to it. Honestly, I wasn't sure if my GPS led me to the right place...until I stepped inside. Like I said, box of chocolates.

The inside of Alte Kapelle reminded me of Munich's Nyphenburg Palace main hall. Gorgeous gold molding, white angels perching, and heavenly beings in murals look down from above. You can go inside of this church, obviously, but there are bars preventing visitors from walking to the alter. I would've taken a few more photos if an elder local couple didn't step inside for prayer. We quickly scattered out of respect.

Being as that the sun sets around 4:30pm this time of year, we called it a day in Regensburg, and had one last stop: Donaustauf: A tiny town on the outskirts of Regensburg. I had noted on Google that there were castle ruins in the area, and if I am ever close to anything resembling a castle, I cannot rest until I have touched it.

We parked below the hill in a tiny lot, and headed up the steep burgstrasse trail. 

Note the ruins on the hill top.

The Donaustauf Castle dates to 1132 AD. Pretty old, for sure! The castle was originally used as a temporary residence for the bishops of Regensburg. Eventually the bishops had to give it up due to financial difficulties, and it passed into the hands of Regensburg (including one of Regensburg's royal families). The castle turned somewhat into a fortress and served as a defensive structure during the Swedish invasion, but was later inhabited by the royal Thurn and Taxis family of Regensburg. The castle had seen some war damage, but a fire in 1880 is what ultimately left it in ruin. 

The hilltop castle has seen better days! This should give y'all an idea of what it once looked like.

Awesome views of the valley.

If you look closely, you can see St. Peter's cathedral spires on the right (above). We weren't far from downtown Regensburg. About 7.5 kilometers away.

I purposely passed on visiting Wallhalla 
(the Parthenon like building seen through the 'window'). 
Wallhalla is a major tourist attraction in Bavaria. It's a memorial building, honoring the important leaders, scientists, inventors, artists, musicians, etc, of Germany; with sculpted busts in remembrance of them all.
None are buried there, otherwise I may have went!
I have seen huge Parthenon inspired buildings and their interiors before and Greek neoclassical is Greek neoclassical, in my opinion.

Our day had came to an end. Rain was heading our way and we wanted to hit the road before it fell.  

Thanksgiving is coming, and like last year, we won't be home! Heading to a few new places within Germany, a couple of big castles along the Rhine (weather permitting).

Pretty darn excited about it!